Roadtrip to Hell
by DamonSucks
Summary: The Cullens thought they would finally have their happily ever after.  They never expected what would next invade their peaceful little bubble of Forks.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Should my disclaimer be better than this?

* * *

"The thing is," said Bonnie, "we haven't any allies."

Of course little Bonnie would be the only one to suggest getting help; she was so helpless herself. N-not helpless, Damon corrected mentally, feeling a flare of power from both Elena and the ginger's direction; merely delicate, like a flower petal- a pretty little marigold.

She was right about allies, though.

"Stop that," he snapped, sensing Bonnie's smug satisfaction at his last thought. He immediately threw up a barrier to block her witchy little thought-theft tricks. The moment he lets his guard down and all these other minds come buzzing about, trying to get in. How he missed when shielding was an unconscious function.

"Quiet. She's right." Meredith said, unaware of the unspoken exchange that had just taken place. "And since you've no friends, you're of no use in this so your input is unnecessary." She was glaring at him. He tried not to notice.

"Allies differ from friends, m'dear," he leaned back, bored of the conversation. "Allies I do happen to have, and powerful ones at that."

Sage grunted in the background to reinforce Damon's point.

"A shame our most powerful ally was so tragically nosy." The boy was so uptight these days, whining about not being human all the time and rubbing it in that Damon was. And it wasn't as though Stefan needed further reason to wallow.

Stefan stiffened and turned to face Damon. And drunk off the power that his girlthing provided. Splendid.

Damon gracefully stood and ambled from the room. This group of downers had dampened his mood enough for the day.

(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)

Elena sighed. She knew he cared and she had tried everything to help him, to get him to realize that he did, but to no avail; his pride always barred her attempts at getting Damon to acknowledge any positive emotion.

She pulled herself from these thoughts; they had other matters to deal with. The rest didn't seem to know what to make of Damon's exit. She realized they were still used to the Damon who had infinitely more power, and had come to rely on him, trust him even. She sighed.

"Whatever, we don't need him. What we do need is allies," she said, bringing the rest of the group back to the topic at hand. She looked to Stefan and Sage. "Got any?"

"None willing to work with humans," shrugged Sage.

Stefan shook his head. Elena knew he hadn't kept much company during the five hundred some years he had been a vampire. She realized now, with a pang, how lonely that must have been.

"So we get new ones," Matt piped in.

"Right. Know any places to get some?" she asked.

"Online ally matchmaking service?" muttered Bonnie.

"Ley lines," said Stefan. "Where there are ley lines there will be the supernatural."

"But Fell's Church has the most ley lines. Where is everybody?" Bonnie peered around as though expecting a vampire to appear and offer his assistance.

"Present," said Sage.

"Eternally damned, at your service," said Stefan wearily.

"And you're forgetting yourself and I, Bonnie," said Mrs. Flowers. "With training you could become very powerful."

"Yes, but it's not enough."

"Well, there are Klaus and Katherine who are dead, though I'm sure you can find their ashes floating around around the cemetery. I don't really care where Tyler Smallwood is, but I suppose he's someone we might want to be keeping tabs on. The kitsune are probably making out in a tree somewhere, and Caroline... is likely in her nest," Matt ticked off all the creatures they had encountered in Fell's Church. Elena cringed a little at the thought of what Caroline had become, though she hadn't seen it firsthand.

"But that's no good at all!" cried Bonnie. "Those are all either evil or dead and evil anyway and what we need now is fresh help."

"The town is currently repelling creatures despite their attraction to the ley lines here," replied Stefan. "They sense that something is not right. If anything, more evil is likely to show up here now."

Sage cleared his throat. "There may be one other place whose sheer number of ley lines rivals Fell's Church's."

(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)

The creepy grey-eyed one found him first, unpleasantly enough. He saw someone do a double-take out of the corner of his eye from a cash register over as he flirted with the girl taking his order.

"She's fifteen," Meredith hissed as she dragged him away. Damon snagged his cup with a wink at the cashier. "I will not allow this blatant pedophilia in my town."

Strong for a human, he noted. They had all been so weak compared to him that the differences between humans had been insignificant. It had been such a long time that he'd almost forgotten that some were stronger than others.

"Hm, yes?" She had those eyes trained on him, he finally noticed. These humans and their babble was of little interest to him; he found himself tuning most of it out. "I'm nearly six centuries old, child; I'm pretty sure anyone and everyone is far too young for me. They never seem to mind, though."

"Has it not sunk in yet what it means to be human again?" Was she attempting to converse with him? He leaned against a table and sipped his coffee. "You will age normally as a twenty something-ish year old man." Still talking. He rolled his eyes. "You no longer have an excuse to creep on little girls."

He stepped forward. She was about eye level. Damn those short genes of the sixteenth century. "I will prey upon whomever I please."

He tried to force menace into every word, but it just didn't come naturally as it used to. It didn't help that the girl was so eerily calm all the time, as though she lacked basic instincts. Anyone else would have shrunk back from him but her gaze did not waver. Perhaps she was a robot.

"You are so full of yourself," she shoved him back with surprising force, catching him off guard. This coupled with his slower reflexes caused him to stumble for the first time in centuries. His coffee cup slipped out of his hand but she caught it.

"Breathe, Damon," she reminded him, handing back the cup.

He took a few slow breaths, trying to regain his composure, and leaned against the table again. Meredith eyed him silently. "What do you want?"

"Nothing." She was already pulling out her phone and walking away.

Before he could question her further, her phone rang.

He only heard muffled rapid speech and cursed his weak human ears for preventing him from eavesdropping.

"Yes... I will... Okay, bye." The girl's responses revealed nothing either. She snapped her phone shut as she whirled away again, hurrying out the door.

Damon caught up as she got into her car. She threw her purse onto the passenger seat and jammed her coffee into a cup holder.

"What's going on?" He hated being out of the loop.

"Complications," she said grimly.

* * *

Oh, Damon.

I'd love to hear from y'all, so read, rate, review.

Can you even rate on here?

Well, put it in the comments on a scale of suck to superduper... to stop being lame.

Feel free to go into the negative suckage if it's that bad.

I'm betaless. Volunteers?


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Alice suddenly stiffened and her face blanked.

Visitors- two of them, she thought, but the vision was unclear. The Cullens' path would intertwine with the strangers' in four days, twelve days, a week, they wouldn't come at all, their futures disappeared and reappeared, flickering weakly like a dying light bulb. She tried to focus on the strangers, but to no avail. Alice was sure of only one thing: if the the strangers did show up, her family would be in danger.

When her eyes focused again, they were frantic.

"What's up, little sis?" Emmett was looking at her expression with concern; he had even paused the game. "Are we getting in a fight- an actual one this time? Still can't believe we didn't get the chance to kick some major Volturi butt."

"No. It's nothing," she said, jumping to her feet. "I've got to go." She dashed out the door, glad that Jasper wasn't there to sense her mood, or Edward to read her mind.

She decided then that she would keep this to herself for now. Telling anyone would be the equivalent of telling Edward and she refused to disturb him and Bella with an uncertain vision that mightn't amount to anything in the end; not now, when they had only just gained the peace which had evaded them for so long.

(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)

"But it's not fair," Bonnie pouted, fully aware of how whiny she sounded. She was tired of being treated as though she were twelve, though. "I want to help, too."

"We need to leave." Bonnie heard Stefan's voice, but couldn't quite see him as he zoomed around the boarding house at an alarming speed, rapidly packing. "Now!"

"Bonnie," Elena said gently despite Stefan's urgent tone. She leaned toward Bonnie conspiratorially. "It might be even more dangerous here. You need to help to protect the town and learn from Mrs. Flowers."

"Really?" Bonnie knew she looked like a wide-eyed child seeking reassurance and chastised herself. If she didn't want to be treated like a child, then she had to stop acting like one. She changed her expression to one of skepticism.

Elena nodded. "Shinichi and Misao know we'll be back, so they're sure to stick around." She turned to Matt. "You'll be okay?"

Bonnie noted with satisfaction that it was Matt that she addressed, because even though he may be stronger and frightened less easily and more cool-headed than Bonnie, he was still a plain human with plain human senses whereas she was a witch and Mrs. Flowers had said she could be powerful.

"Mrs. Flowers and I have got this. It'll be great to have Bonnie to help us, too," he added. "You be careful, though. We don't know what types of creatures you'll find in that place." He looked at her tenderly and Bonnie was suddenly jealous of how much he cared for her. Everyone loved Elena; all the boys, the girls, too.

Elena smiled. "I think w-"

An explosion rocked the ground and Sage began yelling from out front; his voice traveling to the side of the boarding house as he distracted the Kitsune around to the back.

"That's our cue." Stefan suddenly stilled beside Elena, a duffel bag beneath one arm. With his free hand, he grabbed Elena's. She quickly hugged Bonnie and Matt before Stefan pulled her toward the door.

"Some tea, for the road." Mrs. Flowers had appeared by the door, offering a Styrofoam cup and a large tote, presumably full of more tea, which Elena snagged with a quick "thank you!" over her shoulder as Stefan practically dragged her out the door. And then they were gone.

(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)

"They need help?" he finally asked. Meredith had ignored him when he got in the car and continued to pretend he wasn't there as she sped off in the opposite direction of the boarding house.

Meredith looked at him now, resisting the urge to point out that even if they did, neither of them would be able to do much.

"No," she said. "They're just leaving sooner than we had planned. The Kitsune are back. I'll meet up with them later."

"Leave? Ah, so you had come to update me on the plans," he said, understanding. "I was wondering why you'd suddenly taken to following me about. How did you know where to find me, anyway?"

Meredith was shaking her head slowly. "No..."

"No what?"

"I wasn't trying to find you and I wasn't coming to update you."

"You... were going to leave without me." He came to the realization slowly, too shocked to be angry yet.

Meredith nodded.

"Then what were you doing you in the coffee shop?" he challenged.

She tapped the lid of her coffee cup. "Buying coffee."

He yawned and leaned back in the seat. "My lousy little brother's idea, no doubt- ditch the Damon," he drawled carelessly.

Damon was so obvious when putting on an indifferent facade; she wondered how he hadn't yet realized how transparent the defense mechanism was. She was surprised he even cared— but he didn't, she told herself; he just didn't like being left out.

"Mine, actually," she said.

Damon was taken aback; he paused a beat before responding. "What have you got against me?"

She just looked at him. He was kidding, right?

"I've never done anything to you... personally," he said defensively.

"Even if you had any redeeming qualities, you're simply not an asset anymore."

"I'm still stronger than _you_," he pouted. His weakened state as a human was a touchy subject with him. "And all of you _humans_, for that matter."

Meredith refrained from reminding him of his humanity again; that wasn't the point. She couldn't believe how obtuse Damon was being, or maybe he was doing that on purpose. No, he practically worshipped himself; he thought he was the best thing to happen to anyone he ever happened to encounter. His arrogance was infuriating. Why had she let him in the car?

She slammed on the brakes and turned to him, speaking in a carefully controlled voice.

"It doesn't matter because you don't care about any of us _humans_ and we can't depend on you if we need help, however strong you may be. You're unreliable and rude, you don't take _any_ of this seriously- you just like to tag along so you can antagonize your brother about a grudge from half a millennium ago, over a spoiled, manipulative little _bi-._"

"You're wrong!" he said firmly.

Meredith was surprised. For once, he wasn't trying to hide behind his mask of indifference; he was taking a stand, choosing a side.

"We'll see," she said quietly. They drove on in silence.

* * *

Author's Note:

Just as the people of this little town,

Require outside help and can't win on their own,

So is this writer in need of a reader:

A lovely smart person to be this fic's beta.

I'd still love to hear from y'all.


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